[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 24




LEBANON:

'Barbie doll' plane bomb terrorists could face death sentences in Lebanon



2 Australian citizens in custody in Sydney are among 5 men facing the death 
penalty in Lebanon for their part in a planned airplane bombing last year.

Senior Lebanon military court judge Alaa Khatib has recommended the 5 men face 
death by firing squad for their part in the alleged terror plot, The Australian 
reports.

The attack would have seen the plotters detonate bombs hidden in a Barbie doll 
and a meat grinder on an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on July 15 last 
year, killing 400 passengers and crew.

Amer Khayat, who is a dual dual Australian-Lebanese citizen, is the only 1 of 
the 5 in jail in Lebanon and would be the 1st to face the firing squad. The 
others, including the 2 men in custody in Sydney, will be trialled in absentia.

Lebanese authorities detained Sydney man Khayat last July after learning he had 
visited Tripoli multiple times to get married, only to get divorced a short 
time after.

During questioning Khayat allegedly revealed his attempt to smuggle explosives 
aboard the flight.

The plan was thwarted after hand luggage containing the devices was found to be 
overweight at check-in and left at the counter.

The bag is believed to have contained a self-timed bomb, hidden inside a doll.

That bomb upon detonation would have detonated another bomb hidden inside the 
grinder, stored in a 2nd carry-on bag.

Lebanese authorities notified Australian authorities of their findings, 
prompting a series of raids across Sydney late in July.

Amer's brothers Khaled and Mahmout were subsequently arrested and charged with 
2 counts of planning a terrorist attack.

A 3rd brother Tareq, an ISIS commander, is in hiding in Syria. The 5th accused 
- a relative of the Khayats based in Sydney - was investigated by police, but 
no evidence was found to support suspicions he took part in the plot.

All 5 men stand accused by Lebanese authorities of participating in terrorist 
activities, being part of a terrorist group and scheming to commit mass murder.

(source: 9news.com.au)








SAUDI ARABIA:

5 Indonesians on Saudi's death row because of 'magic'



5 Indonesian migrant workers are facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia after 
they were found guilty of practicing what Saudi authorities consider magic and 
sorcery.

"Most of them were convicted because they had jimat (traditional amulets) with 
them," said the Foreign Ministry's Indonesian citizen protection director, Lalu 
Muhammad Iqbal, recently.

Many migrant workers leave Indonesia carrying a jimat as a good luck charm. 
Jimat came in many different forms: from a hair bundle put into a tiny bag to a 
Quran verse kept in a wallet, Lalu said.

Many Muslims in Indonesia are unorthodox and do not consider jimat to be 
problematic.

However, he said, Saudi authorities found such practices to be shirk 
(worshiping anyone or anything other than the Almighty God). In Saudi Arabia, 
this can result in capital punishment.

"Nonetheless, the regulation is not based on the Quran. Therefore, we usually 
manage to acquire clemency from the Saudi government," Iqbal said.

Indonesian officials usually find it harder to get clemency for those found 
guilty of a murder case.

"They could only be freed from the execution charge with clemency given by the 
victims' family," Iqbal said.

Between 2011 and 2018, 102 Indonesians faced death row in Saudi Arabia. 3 were 
executed, 79 were freed from the execution, and 20 are still in the legal 
process for clemency. Of the 20, 5 were charged with practicing magic.

A total of 583 Indonesian citizens have faced the death penalty abroad.

(source: The Jakarta Post)








BELARUS:

Belarus Sticks to Death Penalty Over Europe's Displeasure----More than 400 
convicts have been put to death since 1990, rights activists say.



Last October the Belarusian authorities executed a man for the murder of his 
9-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son, although the public and the man's 
family knew nothing of it.

Not until this month did the news come out, when the man's mother notified a 
campaigner against the death penalty, Andrey Poluda, TUT.by reported.

Europe's major transnational organizations denounced the latest execution.

"Once again we stand firm against any death sentence imposed by the Belarusian 
judiciary and any executions carried out in that country," Yves Cruchten, the 
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's general rapporteur on the 
abolition of the death penalty, and Andrea Rigoni, PACE rapporteur on the 
situation in Belarus, said in an 8 March statement.

Cruchten and Rigoni once again called upon the government to place a moratorium 
on executions.

Belarus has remained outside the Council of Europe, Europe's chief human rights 
watchdog, largely over the organization's opposition to capital punishment.

The European Union also condemned any use of the death penalty and called on 
Belarus "to introduce without delay a moratorium on the death penalty as a 1st 
step towards its abolition."

Belarus is the only country in Europe or the Commonwealth of Independent States 
where the death penalty is still used. Trials in capital cases and executions 
take place behind a veil of secrecy. Relatives of condemned people are not 
informed about their executions and the place of burial remains unknown.

Poluda is active in Belarus's best known rights group, Vesna, a rare open 
opponent of capital punishment in the country.

In an interview with the publication Belorussky Partizan, Poluda said the 
authorities keep a lid on information about the conditions for death-row 
convicts and the executions themselves, and ignore international pressure, such 
as the UN Human Rights Committee resolution expressing concern about the use of 
capital punishment "without guarantee of due process."

In November President Alyaksandr Lukashenka argued that "the question of the 
preservation of the death penalty was adopted at a referendum and it cannot be 
abolished," the state news agency BelTA reported.

In his interview, Poluda said it was irrelevant to cite the referendum, which 
took place in 1996. There was no possibility of a life sentence under 
Belarusian legislation at the time; the maximum term of imprisonment was only 
15 years. Besides, "capital punishment is a very emotional issue which should 
not be resolved by a plebiscite," he said. The activist believes Lukashenka is 
afraid that, having touched upon this issue, others which were decided by 
referendum might be revisited.

The 1996 plebiscite extended Lukashenka???s powers and prolonged his term in 
office from 1999 to 2001, over opposition from the Belarusian opposition, 
several European Union countries, and the United States.

"Change is terrifying" for Lukashenka, Poluda said.

Women may not be put to death in Belarus, according to Cornell Law School's 
capital punishment database.

The Belarusian criminal code states that all executions are by "firing squad." 
In practice, this means a shot fired into the back of the head. "Typically, 
prisoners are executed within hours or even minutes of learning that their 
clemency application has been denied," according to the Cornell project.

More than 400 executions have been carried out since 1990, according to 
Belorussky Partizan, and 5 men are currently on death row, TUT.by says. The 
number has fallen sharply since the 1990s. At least 20 prisoners have been put 
to death since 2007, Cornell estimates.

(source: tol.org)








BANGLADESH:

Child Rapist Sentenced to Death



A district court in Pyin Oo Lwin Township sentenced a child rapist and murderer 
from Madaya Township to the death penalty.

"He [the offender] admitted that he raped and killed a girl and the court 
sentenced him in line with the law," explained Daw Htay Htay Maw, a Pyin Oo 
Lwin District court spokesperson.

Ko Phyo Htet Aung, 23, was arrested on Feb. 13 after raping and killing a 
2-year-old girl from Mway Kadoseik village, some five miles from Madaya 
Township, Pyin Oo Lwin District, Mandalay Division.

The girl's parents left her at her grandmother's house on Feb. 13 while they 
went out to collect firewood but found her missing when they returned. The girl 
was found later that day unconscious in a banana plantation on the outskirts of 
the village after she had been raped. She died at the hospital.

Ko Phyo Htet Aung was apprehended by locals and handed over to police, who 
detained him on charges of rape and murder.

"The crime that Ko Phyo Htet Aung admitted to was so brutal and inhumane that 
the court decided to give him the death penalty," explained the spokesperson.

However, the court said the sentence can be appealed to a higher court within 7 
days.

"The case interested the public because the victim was a minor. As a lawyer for 
the victim's family, I think the court did the right thing by setting this 
precedent for sentencing in rape cases," said U lawyer Wai Phyo Maung Maung.

Since the death penalty has not been practiced in the country for decades, 
lawyers said that whether the culprit is killed or left to rot in prison will 
be decided by the law (upon appeal if that course is taken), as well as prison 
laws and regulations.

Madaya locals led by the parents and family of the victim signed a petition and 
staged a protest days after the child died, urging the authorities to issue 
death sentences to rapists, particularly child rapists.

"We are satisfied with the court's decision. I believe that other parents won't 
have to suffer as we have in the future," said U Hlaing Zin Myo, the victim's 
father.

In February, 2 rape cases against children under 5 years old were recorded in 
Mandalay, while children under 13 were also raped and killed in Yenangyaung, 
Minhla and Yangon.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs released on Feb. 15, 
the number of reported rape cases of children under 16 has risen by more than 
200 over the past year.

Amid the rise of campaigns calling for the death penalty for child rapists, a 
mob gathered at a police station in Mandalay to confront the police and urge 
them to hand over an alleged child rapist.

(source: The Irrawaddy)




CHINA:

Chinese businesswoman convicted of cheating has death penalty reduced to 25 
years' jail



A self-made Chinese businesswoman, originally handed the death penalty for 
cheating investors out of millions, had her sentence reduced again on Friday 
(March 23) to a 25-year jail term, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In 2007, Wu Ying was convicted of cheating investors out of 380 million yuan 
(S$79 million) from May 2005 to January 2007 in lending scams. 2 years later, 
she was sentenced to death.

Wu amassed her fortune by promising investors high returns as she spent the 
money on a lavish lifestyle.

Her case had sparked heated public debate over China's fundraising system, 
which outlaws all forms of private lending, though some thought the original 
sentence was too harsh.

After a retrial in 2012, her sentence was reduced to death with a 2-year 
reprieve. The sentence was then commuted to life imprisonment in 2014.

The Zhejiang native opened a hair salon in 1997 and later became the president 
of her own investment firm Bense.

(source: Reuters)








JAPAN:

Cult leader's daughters call for him not to be executed----Tokyo attacker Shoko 
Asahara and followers set to hang amid mental competence doubts



Some people joke they have parents from hell. In Rika Matsumoto's case it seems 
to be true.

Matsumoto's family broke up 2 decades ago after her father was arrested for 
masterminding the worst terrorist attack in Japan's modern history. Her mother 
was convicted of murder. Rika (34) says she has lived much of her life since 
"hovering between life and death".

She, her sister Umi (36) and 4 siblings were partly raised in a countryside 
compound run by Aum Shinrikyo, the apocalyptic cult founded by their father, 
Shoko Asahara. This week marks 23 years since his followers gassed the Tokyo 
underground with sarin, a chemical weapon developed in Nazi Germany.

The 1995 attack killed 13 people, sickened more than 6,000 and inflicted wounds 
on Japan's psyche from which it has yet to recover.

Not surprisingly, Asahara (born Chizuo Matsumoto) is one of Japan's most 
reviled men. The blind, charismatic guru attracted zealots who committed a 
series of increasingly brazen crimes, including the murder of a lawyer and his 
family and the 1994 gassing of an entire neighbourhood that killed 7 and 
injured 600. Defectors and recalcitrant devotees were tortured and murdered.

I have never, not now or in the past, thought of my father as a father,' she 
said, after successfully petitioning to cut ties with both parents

The authorities feared the cult might use helicopters to drop poison gas over 
Tokyo, one of the world???s most crowded cities.

Monster vs human

Despite their father's fearsome reputation, however, the sisters express love 
for him. When she was 7 and nursing a fever, says Umi, Asahara lingered by her 
bedside for days, mopping her brow. Rika recalls him clowning around to make 
them laugh. "People think of him as a monster but he was human," she says.

Their younger sister, Satoka, has different views. In November, Asahara's 4th 
daughter said he had violently abused her. "I have never, not now or in the 
past, thought of my father as a father," she said, after successfully 
petitioning to cut ties with both parents. She said she supports the death 
penalty for her father. Her sisters call those claims "lies". Satoka may soon 
get her wish. The last of the marathon Aum trials wound up in January and 
Asahara and 12 other cultists are on death row. Many believe the government 
wants the executions carried out quickly, consigning a painful national 
watershed to history.

The sisters say they have been ostracised because of their infamous name. Rika, 
who left the cult compound in 1996, was blocked from entering school and had to 
fight in the courts to be allowed to study at university. She says she has 
repeatedly attempted suicide. "We were just children at the time but we have 
been treated like criminals."

If the government follows the law, they cannot kill my father,' says Rika. 
'It's as simple as that'

They long ago cut ties with their mother, Tomoko, who was released from prison 
in 2002 after serving time for helping to lynch a cultist. They last saw their 
father in prison a decade ago but he has since refused to emerge from his cell. 
It is, in any case, difficult to recognise the babbling, shambolic figure they 
saw; he wears a nappy and makes no sense, says Umi.

Corners cut

Asahara mumbled incoherently through 256 court sessions without ever offering 
an apology, let alone an explanation. Prosecutors struggled to tie him directly 
to the cult's crimes but convicted him on the basis of testimony from other 
cultists. The sisters believe their father is no longer mentally competent and 
that legal corners were cut to send him to the gallows.

"If the government follows the law, they cannot kill my father," says Rika. 
"It's as simple as that." She and Umi are demanding proper medical treatment 
for Asahara and a stay of execution: Japanese law states that hangings must be 
suspended in cases of mental disability. The government has rejected claims 
that Asahara is seriously ill.

The cult has split into splinter groups. Aleph, as Aum now calls itself, 
offered condolences to the victims of the subway attack this week, but said 
executing Asahara would be "a grave, irreversible mistake". Doubts remain about 
whether it has officially severed its connections to a leader who once declared 
himself Christ and led nearly 40,000 people around the world.

The call announcing his death could come to Rika's mobile phone at any time, 
she says. Japan's justice ministry gives no prior notice before hangings, which 
are shrouded in secrecy. "I just want to hear him speak in his own voice, to 
explain what happened," she says.

(source: irishtimes.com)








SOUTH AFRICA:

Exhumed remains of PAC activists return home



Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha officially handed 
over the remains of 17 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Paarl political activists 
to their families in Queenstown.

Minister Masutha handed over the remains on behalf of the Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Friday as part of commemorating Human Rights 
Month.

All 17 PAC members were hanged at the Pretoria Central Prison gallows, now 
known as Kgosi Mampuru, for incidents that took place during the period of 
intense political turmoil in the Eastern Cape between 1963 and 1967.

Speaking at the event, Minister Masutha hoped the handover will be a step for 
the families to heal.

"We hope that the recovery of these remains will go some way towards relieving 
the decades of pain experienced by the families of those hanged, and at last 
allow them to be buried with the dignity they deserve."

The Minister said the handover is part of the gallows project which entails the 
exhumation, handover and reburial of the remains of 83 political prisoners who 
were hanged at the Kgosi Mampuru gallows and buried in unmarked graves.

"The bodies of the hanged political prisoners remained the property of the 
state and were given pauper burials in municipal cemeteries around Pretoria. 
Families were denied the opportunity to bury them."

A total of 130 political prisoners from various political organisations 
including the PAC, the ANC, the UDF were hanged at the gallows between 1960 and 
1990.

The Gallows Exhumation Project aimed to recover the remains of 83 of the hanged 
whose remains had not yet been found or recovered.

During apartheid rule, it was common for black people convicted of murdering 
whites to be sentenced to death but very rare for whites who murdered blacks to 
be given the death sentence.

A study of death sentences in one year found that 47% of blacks convicted of 
murdering whites were given the death sentence as opposed to no death sentences 
at all for whites convicted of murdering blacks.

Between 1960 and 1990, at least 140 individuals were hanged for politically 
motivated offences.

Minister Masutha said it was for this reason that the new government has since 
changed this reality and established a society that values human rights and 
took a progressive stance to end the death penalty.

"Our democratic constitution which has guided us for the past 20 years declares 
the right to life as a fundamental human right. The Constitution also implores 
us to uphold the dignity of all living human beings," Minister Masutha added.

(source: rnews.co.za)








KENYA:

AG Githu Muigai appoints task force to review death penalty



Attorney-General Githu Muigai has appointed a 13-member task force to review 
the legislative framework on death penalty and other matters.

In a Gazette Notice published on Friday, Prof Githu Muigai gave the task force 
12 months to complete the work.

DEATH PENALTY

Other than the legislative framework, the task force to be chaired by Ms 
Maryann Njau-Kimani will set up a framework to deal with rehearing of 
sentencing of persons on death row as directed by the Supreme Court in December 
last year.

In a landmark judgment, 6 judges of the Supreme Court found that the mandatory 
nature of the death sentence as provided for under Section 204 of the Penal 
Code is unconstitutional.

The court led by Chief Justice David Maraga, Deputy CJ Philomena Mwilu, 
Justices Jackton Ojwang', Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung'u and Isaac Lenaola, said 
a person facing the death sentence is most deserving to be heard in mitigation 
because of the finality of the sentence.

CASES

According to the judges, during mitigation, the offender's version of events 
may be heavy with pathos necessitating the court to consider an aspect that may 
have been unclear during the trial process.

They said that mitigation might "call for pity more than censure or on the 
converse, impose the death sentence, if mitigation reveals an untold degree of 
brutality and callousness".

The judges, however, said that convicts on death row should not approach the 
Supreme Court for the hearing of their cases but await appropriate guidelines 
for disposal of the same.

The judges directed the Attorney-General to urgently set up a framework to deal 
with rehearing of cases relating to the mandatory nature of the death sentence.

DEATH ROW

A total of 6,058 prisoners have been sentenced to death since 2011.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the death sentences were 
highest in 2014, when 2,757 offenders were condemned to face the hangman.

"We are of the view that mitigation is an important congruent element of fair 
trial.

"The fact that mitigation is not expressly mentioned as a right in the 
Constitution does not deprive it of its necessity and essence in the fair trial 
process," the judges said.

They noted that Article 28 of the Constitution provides that every person has 
inherent dignity and the right to have that dignity protected.

"It is for this Court to ensure that all persons enjoy the rights to dignity.

"Failing to allow a judge discretion to take into consideration the convicts' 
mitigating circumstances, the diverse character of the convicts, and the 
circumstances of the crime, but instead subjecting them to the same (mandatory) 
sentence thereby treating them as an undifferentiated mass, violates their 
right to dignity," they observed.

TASK FORCE

The task force will also recommend parameters of what ought to constitute life 
imprisonment, formulate amendments and enact a law to give effect to the 
judgment, and create awareness by sensitising the public on the judgment and 
its implications.

Others members of the task force are Supreme Court Registrar Esther Nyaiyaki, 
Mr Fredrick Ashimosi from the DPP's office, Ms Emily Chweya, Mr Joseph Were and 
Mr Dickson Njeru, among others.

The team is required to prepare proposals upon undertaking comparison studies 
with other jurisdictions; and consult all stakeholders with divergent views on 
death penalty, including religious leaders, parliamentary committees and civil 
society organisations.

(source: nation.co.ke)